Update on Comet and his seizures

They are doing a battery of tests before prescribing seizure meds. Right now they're doing a round of Clindamycin (antibiotic) to rule out toxoplasmosis. So far it has not helped the seizures. He's averaging 2 a day and he's losing bowel/ bladder control during them. Right now I"m pushing fluids as he's not eating real well. Wet food with warm water seems to help a little, he'll take a few bites. 

His post-itctal behavior is sleepy and confused. Poor baby.

if anyone has ideas, experience or anything I appreciate any advice or support right now. 

Laura

Did they rule out epilepsy?  How are they doing the tests if he's at home, or did they just send him home for the weekend? 

Laura H said:

 
They are doing a battery of tests before prescribing seizure meds. Right now they're doing a round of Clindamycin (antibiotic) to rule out toxoplasmosis. So far it has not helped the seizures. He's averaging 2 a day and he's losing bowel/ bladder control during them. Right now I"m pushing fluids as he's not eating real well. Wet food with warm water seems to help a little, he'll take a few bites. 

His post-itctal behavior is sleepy and confused. Poor baby.

if anyone has ideas, experience or anything I appreciate any advice or support right now. 

Laura

Click to expand...

Hi Laura,  

I started my account here just about a month after my kitty Nat started having seizures 3 1/2 years ago, so you can go back and see my first posts about him and all the updates if or when you have time.  I'll summarize as best I can, IIRC.  He's been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy.  The way I understand it, epilepsy is a diagnosis of exclusion, it's what they call it when they have run all the tests and still have no answers.  

His seizures first appeared sometime between December 2011 and March 2012.  In December 2011, Nat was throwing up green bile and not eating.  I took him to a vet who happened to be open on Sunday when he needed to be seen.  It was Banfield at Petsmart.  They ran bloodwork and an X-ray.  Of course, found nothing.  I don't recall if they sent him home with any medications or if they gave him something while there.  They sent the results to my regular vet who also reviewed the labs and film.  His appetite slowly returned and he got better slowly after that but was never quite the same anymore.  Something was wrong. That day at Banfield, the vet asked me a number of times, even pleading at one point, for me to let her give him a rabies shot.  I refused because he was sick and told her I would follow up with my regular vet for this.  I wonder now if they gave him the shot without my consent. Why on earth would she give a sick cat with unknown cause, a rabies shot? I just found her insistence to be infuriating and more than a little suspicious.    

In the weeks following, I began noticing small wet spots on the pads where he slept, all over the house.  I now know it was saliva, but I had no idea at the time.  A couple of times, I noticed what I thought was a fight going on between my kitties at night under my bed.  It sounded like a lot of running going on.  It wasn't.  It was the beginning of what built up to grand mal seizures.  In March 4, 2012, just 2 days before the appointment to have all my kitties seen by their vet and vaccinated, I witnessed Nat having a petit mal seizure.  He was napping at the back door (see my profile pic - that's him on the right at my back door).  All of a sudden he got up and had this long drool hanging out the left side of his mouth, and he turned in circles 4 times.  He was a bit disoriented but conscious. I called my vet to notify her.  I already had an appointment with her two days later for all the kitties to be examined and have their rabies shots.

She knew of his history of throwing up and had seen the labs and X-rays done 4 months before.  Still she elected to give him the rabies vaccine.  This was on March 6, 2012, which was only two days after I witnessed his petit mal seizure.  I wish I had told her no, but I'm not really sure it would have made much difference at that point. 

It was 2 days after his rabies shot, on March 8, 2012,  that I witnessed a grand mal seizure.  I believe they had been happening before, either grand mal or petit mal, way before I ever witnessed it, but they'd only been happening since he had been sick in December.  The day I first saw it happen, he had been asleep under the bed then began running around, fell to the ground and writhed on the floor salivating and peeing.  I called the vet who said to take him to the ER if it happened again.  It did the very next day almost 24 hours later.  Batteries of tests run again.  No answers.  His calcium was a little high, but nothing else out of the ordinary.  He was put on Valium and Versed to control the seizures.  When under control he was sent home and told to follow up with my regular vet. 

At first my vet gave me an rx for phenobarb ear cream twice a day and rectal valium which I had to rush to set up and give at the time of each seizure. I learned to have the syringe and catheter already set up with the surgiglube, but even then it was practically impossible to administer quickly enough because I had no idea when the seizures would happen nor where he would be.  The ictal phase only lasted 15 to 20 seconds or so, (yet it seemed like a long time watching him thrash around. It's heart-wrenching!)  So by the time I got him in position, he'd already be in the post-ictal phase and very hyper-sensitive to any noises or movement.  Even touching him made him flinch, still shaking, bless him. He almost always peed on himself.  

It seemed nothing I did made one bit of difference, the phenobarb cream nor what little valium I could get in him.  But the seizures became less and less and stopped on July 4.  By then he had had no medication at all since April of that year,  because he was scared to death of me and avoided me like the plague.  Rectal valium is a BITCH to try and give a cat!!!  It's almost impossible and I'm no vet tech nor a vet.  Even they say it's difficult to give.  So I couldn't even catch him to apply the phenobarb cream after April, however I did give him about a week or two worth of doses.  He had seizures in increasing frequency from March 2012 through June 2012, then they began decreasing on their own without medication.  The last one he had was on July 4 2012 that year.  

I'm sorry this is so long.  Kudos to you if you've read it all.  I'll try to be very brief now. 

Since then, he's had seizures return, increase, then decrease, then stop, seemingly without any relation to medication he was taking.  I've changed his diet to grain free. I only use unscented clay litter and have for the past 2 years now.  I continued giving the Phenobarb ear cream because my new vet said it must be helping some, even though the ER vet advised me to stop it because his phenobarb level was only 1. something.  I believe 14 is low normal, not sure.  Transdermal meds bypass the GI tract so there will be only a low blood level.  

In January this year the seizures returned with a vengeance, worse than before, increasing in severity and frequency.  This time the ER vet put him on oral phenobarb pills - 8mg twice a day.  Had MUCH difficulty giving them so I crushed them and put it in water in a syringe.  It must have helped.  The seizures returned in March of this year.  Back to the ER, no new labs done.  This time they gave me an rx for liquid phenobarb and increased the dose from 8 to 16mg twice a day.  Since then he has has no seizures.  But he's still not right.  He's very sleepy because of the phenobarb.  His fur is not soft and shiny like it was in 2011.  He just has not seemed right since this all started.  But the vets have no answers for me yet.  

I just had his lab work done (liver panel/cbc/phenobarb level) last Thursday by a new vet and am waiting for him to call me today to discuss and give me a new rx.  He thinks he is oversedated and that we might be able to decrease his dose and keep his seizures under control.

There are many causes for seizures.  My vets do not know what has caused Nat's, but for now they are under control.  Hope this helps!  Good luck to you.